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Mix Masters
Juggy's Slap Lake City offers local hip-hop artists a unique showcase.
By Keith L. McDonald

If anyone could claim to represent Utah hip-hop on a national level, it's Ryan "Juggy" Alfaro. While he was nicknamed after his childhood likeness to the Archie Comics character Jughead, his skills on the turntables are no laughing matter.

He's got a list of accolades and affiliations as long as I-80: He was the first official DJ of the Utah Jazz and Salt Lake City Bees; worked with companies like Jordan Brand, X-Box, Skull Candy and Converse; shared the stage with the Wu, Snoop Dogg, Lil Jon, Schoolboy Q, Big Sean and Atmosphere. Perhaps most notably, he's a member of one of the most prolific DJ crews in the world, The Heavy-Hitters. Over the past 20 years, this local icon has introduced good hip-hop to thousands of Utahns.

Juggy knows better than anyone that DJing ain't just about equipment, techniques and résumés. It's also about networking, consistency and adapting to the times. That means incorporating new technology, new sounds and, yes, new people to the fold, all while not straying too far from the principles that attracted people to the culture in the first place.

When he was coming up in the late '90s, the accepted method of introducing new music was the mixtape. Paying homage to the original way listeners blended songs by recording their favorite tunes from the radio onto cassettes, "mixtape" is still how musical compilations are named today. Rappers in the past created buzz and made a little coin while garnering fans and making a case for a record deal, without dealing with many of the industry's trappings. Juggy used the accessible mixtape to bring new music to Salt Lake City—and despite mixtapes having faded, he's put new treads on the mixtape concept by starting Slap Lake City.

A mixtape-slash-concert series comprised of Utah artists, each showcase—held at the downtown venue Soundwell—begins with Juggy selecting Utah artists via email submissions, then packing their content into mixes available on Mixcloud, a streaming service that allows DJs to bring mixtapes to listeners without plastic and hand-to-hand sales. After that, the selected artists get together to perform their works on a joint bill. 

Juggy explains how he came up with the inspiration for Slap Lake City ahead of the seventh installment of the event. "I was doing mixtapes for a while back in the vinyl days, and I started doing [them] again. Before the blogs and the internet and all that, DJs who got [music] first had to spread the gospel on it," Juggy says. "Anyways, so I started doing mixtapes again [on satellite radio] and there was room at the end of the mixtapes."

Juggy could have found artists he thought would get him the most props among his peers to fill that space; instead, he decided to incorporate local talent, shining light on local artists. "I was like, holy fuck, there's so much good music out here," he says of the beginnings of his search for locals. "There was more music than I expected, so I ended up doing a full mixtape. ... I probably got like 80 submissions, and out of the 80, I used almost 40 of them—and they were heat. Anything from your lyrical miracles to trap shit to reggae shit to everything in big rolling with it." With this many artists on the mixtapes, each release is spread out into two separate live showcase nights.

Since the first Slap Lake show back in October of 2019, dozens of artists have already benefited from Juggy's efforts, including access to top-notch sound equipment and the opportunity to network with fellow artists from up and down the state—making Slap Lake not only representative of Utah hip hop, but essential to solidarity in the scene. While the city and the scene are small, it's special to have access to the biggest DJ in the state, who might feature your music on a mixtape, play it in the club or feature it on satellite radio.

According to Juggy, the most important part of getting noticed by him and in general is to be precise. "Mark your tracks properly. The artists, the title ... even the producer. Sometimes I get a track and it says, 'new track one' and I'm like, 'What's the name of the song?' There's no artist or title, and the email is their real name," Juggy says. Furthermore, a press kit, a website and media training would serve people looking to make music their full-time job well.

You can start by bumping a Slap Lake City mixtape, patronizing a show and being a compassionate part of the hip hop community. With over 20 years of experience in the hip-hop game, no one in Salt Lake City is more qualified to mentor our young artists than Juggy is—and Slap Lake City is the place to learn what he has to teach.

Any artist who wants to be down with the movement is urged to send mp3 files (files, no links) to DJ Juggy directly at djjuggy@gmail.com.

Thursday 3/12
Slap Lake City Hiphop Showcase
Soundwell, 149 W. 200 South, 8 p.m., free, 21+,
soundwellslc.com